---
born: 1998
category: Technologists
created: 2026-10-13
location: New York, New York
relations:
- fn: 5
  role: founder; began building the prediction market in 2020
  start: 2020
  type: founded
  with: '[[Polymarket]]'
- fn: 18
  role: chief executive officer; executive officer and director of Blockratize Inc.,
    which does business as Polymarket
  start: 2020
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Polymarket]]'
- fn: 10
  role: founder and chief executive officer of the Ethereum holding-contract project
    TokenUnion, formerly TokenBnk
  start: 2017
  type: head_of
  with: '[[TokenUnion]]'
- fn: 3
  role: built union.market into a marketplace for yield-generating digital assets
  start: 2019
  type: founded
  with: '[[Union (union.market)]]'
- end: 2016
  fn: 6
  role: summer intern in San Francisco, by his own account
  start: 2016
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Chronicled]]'
- fn: 23
  reverse: true
  role: search of his Manhattan apartment and seizure of his phone and electronic
    devices
  start: 2024-11-13
  type: investigated
  with: '[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'
- end: 2025-07
  fn: 26
  reverse: true
  role: civil probe of Polymarket, closed without action
  type: investigated
  with: '[[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]]'
- end: 2025-07
  fn: 27
  reverse: true
  role: criminal probe of Polymarket, closed without charges
  type: investigated
  with: '[[United States Attorney''s Office for the Southern District of New York]]'
- fn: 19
  reverse: true
  role: document request on insider trading and identity verification at Polymarket
  start: 2026-05-22
  type: investigated
  with: '[[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]]'
- fn: 32
  role: $5,000 contribution to the super PAC
  start: 2023-06-15
  type: funded
  with: '[[Never Back Down]]'
- fn: 31
  role: $50,000 contribution to the joint fundraising committee, which the FEC records
    allocate to the Democratic National Committee ($41,300), Harris for President
    ($3,300) and state party committees
  start: 2024-10-21
  type: funded
  with: '[[Harris Victory Fund]]'
- fn: 31
  role: $23,300 contribution to the joint fundraising committee, earmarked through
    ActBlue, which the FEC records allocate to Torres for Congress ($3,300), the New
    York State Democratic Committee ($10,000), Equality PAC ($5,000) and La Bamba
    PAC ($5,000)
  start: 2024-11-01
  type: funded
  with: '[[Torres Victory Fund]]'
- fn: 31
  role: three receipts totaling $250,000 (general account $44,300, headquarters account
    $72,800, legal proceedings account $132,900), employer listed as Blockratize Inc.
  start: 2026-08-03
  type: funded
  with: '[[Republican National Committee]]'
summary: Founder and chief executive of Polymarket, a college dropout who built crypto
  projects before launching the prediction market in 2020, and whose company's 2025
  Intercontinental Exchange deal made him a reported billionaire.
tags:
- Person
- ShayneCoplan
- Polymarket
- PredictionMarkets
- Crypto
- Ethereum
- FoundersFund
- PeterThiel
- DonaldTrumpJr
- FBISearch
- CampaignFinance
updated: 2026-10-13
---

Shayne Coplan (born 1998) is a New York technologist and the founder and chief executive of [Polymarket](/organizations/polymarket/), a prediction market he began building in 2020 and that accepts bets only in crypto.[^1] In October 2025 Intercontinental Exchange invested two billion dollars in cash in the company, and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index counted him as a billionaire at 27, which Fortune described as the youngest current self-made billionaire.[^2]

### Early life and family

Coplan is the only child of South African college professors and grew up with his mother on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.[^1][^3] His mother taught in the film departments of [New York University](/organizations/new-york-university/) and [Columbia University](/organizations/columbia-university/) and cast him in several of her short films as a child. He has described his father, who studied panic disorder and depression, as a "mad scientist."[^3] He attended a public school in Hell's Kitchen[^1] and then The Beacon School, a selective public high school.[^3][^4] At 14 he emailed the New York office of the [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) asking whether it would meet him about setting up an electronic trading platform. He did not receive a reply, the Observer reports. At 16 he got his first job by turning up unannounced at a tech startup that had not answered several requests for an internship.[^4]

### Schooling and the first crypto projects

Coplan enrolled at NYU as a computer science major in the fall of 2016.[^3] Accounts differ on how long he stayed. CBS News reported that he "dropped out of NYU his freshman year."[^5] New York magazine reported that he was telling friends within a few months that school was not for him and that he dropped out after the first semester,[^3] and the Observer gives the same account.[^4] His own biography on the team page of TokenUnion, captured by the Internet Archive in May 2019, gives a different sequence. It says that halfway through his second semester at NYU the price of ether began a mega bull run, so he "left school to pursue blockchain projects full time," and that he began work on TokenUnion shortly afterward.[^6]

The team page lists him as chief executive officer of TokenUnion and says that two years after the 2014 presale he moved to [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) for the summer to intern at Chronicled, "one of the first venture-funded Ethereum startups."[^6] The company's homepage in the same capture said that TokenUnion "lets you earn interest on your crypto," carried the line "Get Rewarded for Holding Crypto," stated that "Americans are ineligible to receive their reward," and linked a whitepaper. Its footer read "2018 Blockratize Limited."[^7] El País describes TokenUnion as "a kind of crypto loyalty program" and calls it his first project.[^8]

The project launched under the name TokenBnk on Product Hunt on November 2, 2017. Commenters asked whether the team was incorporated and whether the product was a scam, and Coplan posted as the founder. He explained that when a participant withdraws, a fee of 2.5 percent of the ether-denominated value of the deposit, fixed at deposit time as a number of TBK tokens, is paid and distributed among the participants who remain, so that "the yield is generated" by people who do not hold. Commenters asked whether the team was incorporated, what happens if everyone withdraws, and whether the model was a Ponzi scheme. A reviewer on the same page wrote in January 2022 that the project was "a soft clone of POWH (proof of weak hands), EthPyramid, and other Ethereum ponzi-like projects."[^9] [Forbes](/organizations/forbes/) reported the next day, under the headline "TokenUnion Is The Decentralized Cryptocurrency Savings Account That Rewards Patience," that the product (formerly TokenBnk) was "not a bank at all" but a non-custodial holding system on the blockchain, in which a withdrawing user pays a fee of one TokenUnion coin that is divided among all users in proportion to their share of the total network value. The article quotes "TokenUnion founder and CEO Shayne Coplan" on cryptoeconomics: "In the case of TokenUnion, the correct behavior is to hold long, and that's where the rewards come in."[^10]

He also built union.market, which New York magazine describes as a marketplace for yield-generating digital assets. The magazine reports that he bought the union.market domain because he was a devotee of Union Market, a grocery store on the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn. He was living on what the earlier crypto project had eventually paid him and a small amount of venture capital while he built it, and at one point he appraised his possessions in a Google Sheet so that he could pay rent.[^3] The Block published an essay on staking on March 2, 2020 that it credited to "Union founder Shayne Coplan."[^11] The Internet Archive holds captures of union.market from July 2019 onward; the captured pages are a script-driven application shell, and the Google Tag Manager container embedded in them is the only content they preserve.[^12]

He had read Robin Hanson's paper "Shall We Vote on Values, But Bet on Beliefs?," which proposes governance by market (futarchy). New York magazine reports that in early 2019 Coplan sent Hanson "a verbose email with multiple block paragraphs" proclaiming that he wanted "to be the person to bring prediction markets to life." Hanson "brushed him off," the magazine writes, because many companies had tried in the decades since he first wrote about them without achieving critical mass.[^3] Hanson had designed the [Policy Analysis Market](/programs/policy-analysis-market/), the DARPA-funded futures market on Middle Eastern outcomes that the Pentagon abandoned on July 29, 2003, a day after Senators [Ron Wyden](/people/ron-wyden/) and Byron Dorgan denounced it.[^13] Coplan had also complained to Joey Krug, the founder of the prediction market Augur, that Augur's user experience was poor and its fees too high.[^3]

New York magazine describes the initial coin offering boom of that period as producing projects that were often never fully built. Coplan had worked on one that promised to pay him $160,000 and then tried to back out of paying the second half. "These guys are grifters, and they half-ass things," he said of the teams behind such projects.[^3]

### Ethereum and the early crypto community

According to the TokenUnion biography, Coplan began mining Litecoin and buying Bitcoin in 2013, discovered Ethereum in early 2014, and took part in the Ether presale in July 2014.[^6] The Observer reports that in 2014 he bought $150 worth of Ethereum, which it estimates would be worth about one million dollars today.[^4] El País says that "at just 15" he took part in Ethereum's 2014 initial coin offering.[^8] Fortune presents the story as "crypto lore" rather than verified fact.[^1] The Observer reports that he soon became fed up with the grifting in the sector, and New York magazine quotes him calling the sector's copycat start-ups a "Build-A-Bear" lineup.[^3][^4]

### Founding Polymarket

Coplan has said that he started the company in 2020, when he was 21. In a post on X he wrote: "At the onset of the pandemic, I quite literally had nothing to lose: 21, running out of money, 2.5 years since I dropped out and nothing to show for it."[^2] During the pandemic he was confined to his New York apartment without an office. El País reports that the only room where he could find privacy was the bathroom, which he converted into a workspace, and that the idea for Polymarket came from there.[^8] New York magazine calls it a "bathroom office" on the Lower East Side.[^3] Coplan told CBS that "New York City was shut down."[^5] El País reports that his prediction-market thinking drew on Robin Hanson and on Friedrich Hayek's argument for decentralized information.[^8] New York magazine reports that he had no co-founders ("Who would want to work with me? I got nothing") and launched poly.market in June 2020, referring union.market's traffic there. He ran the company's social-media accounts himself and messaged each post to investors, one of whom told the magazine that "every single tweet he would send us" arrived that way. The magazine reports that Polymarket correctly predicted Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election.[^3] In a podcast around that time Coplan called the site part of the "Napsterization of finance," and said on another: "At no point are we intermediating anything, or custodying anything, or even taking fees, it's basically nonprofit."[^3]

In November 2020 he appeared on The Block's podcast, The Scoop, on a program whose listed topics included "How he went from early Ethereum adopter to founder of a company." The Block summarized his view as confidence in the growing future of prediction markets.[^14] New York magazine reports that the early investors included Michael Bucella (seed round) and Meltem Demirors, who invested after Coplan "violently argued" with her for two hours at their first meeting, and that a venture capitalist who passed on the company said of the U.S. restrictions: "I think he knew," describing "a bit of a wink-wink, like, 'We geoblocked the U.S., and hopefully regulation will change at some point.'"[^3]

### Funding and backers

In May 2024 the company announced that it had raised $70 million across two rounds it had not previously disclosed. The $45 million Series B was led by [Founders Fund](/organizations/founders-fund/) and existing investors 1confirmation and ParaFi, with participation from Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly and Kevin Hartz, a co-founder of Eventbrite. The previously unannounced $25 million Series A was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Joe Gebbia of Airbnb and Polychain Capital.[^15] Joey Krug, a partner at Founders Fund, said in a statement that the firm had been checking Polymarket during breaking news and that "It became clear to us that Polymarket was the winner in this market."[^16] In October 2025 Coplan disclosed two earlier rounds: $55 million in 2024 led by Blockchain Capital at a $350 million valuation, and $150 million in 2025 led by Founders Fund at a $1.2 billion valuation.[^17] New York magazine reports that Krug, whose Augur Coplan had criticized, first turned down Coplan's repeated investment pitches ("prediction markets are one of the hardest types of start-ups to build"), then set a target of $5 million in weekly volume; in late 2023 Coplan called to say he had reached it, after the ouster of Sam Altman at [OpenAI](/organizations/openai/) produced a market on whether Altman would return as chief executive. Krug, by then at Founders Fund, led the round.[^3]

The same announcement stated that Polymarket had hired Richard Jaycobs, a former president of the Cantor Exchange and chief executive of The Clearing Corporation, as head of market expansion to explore "US regulated activities," and that he would work with former [Commodity Futures Trading Commission](/organizations/commodity-futures-trading-commission/) (CFTC) chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, who is chairman of Polymarket's advisory board.[^15]

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission list [Blockratize Inc.](/organizations/polymarket/) as the issuer, with Coplan as an executive officer and director. Blockratize is the Delaware entity that the House Oversight Committee's 2026 letter names as doing business as Polymarket.[^18][^19] Sportico, reviewing Panamanian corporate filings for Adventure One QSS Inc., the operator of Polymarket's international platform, reported that the company designated Coplan its president on December 22, 2021 and replaced him on April 7, 2022, and that he remained a director.[^20] The notice filed October 18, 2024 reports a first sale on October 4, 2024, an offering of $86,187,000 and $82,203,608 sold, with Bart Stephens also listed as a director. An amended notice filed February 25, 2025 reports a first sale on February 11, 2025, $91,203,500 offered and $90,948,943 sold, with Joshua Rivera listed as a director. A notice filed August 1, 2025 reports a first sale on July 18, 2025, $257,535,911 offered and $135,373,939 sold.[^18]

### The FBI search and the probe

At about 6 a.m. on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, eight [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) agents in black windbreakers came to Coplan's Manhattan apartment with a battering ram, New York magazine reports. They surprised him in bed, took his phone from the bedside table, would not let him touch it, and spent hours going through his belongings and art collection.[^3] The New York Post first reported the search, citing a source close to the matter, according to The Block and Fox Business; the source said the FBI did not arrest Coplan.[^21][^22] [United Press International](/organizations/united-press-international/) reported that the [New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/) and the Post both reported that his phone and other electronic devices were seized, and that the Times reported the search was part of a criminal investigation into whether Polymarket was allowing U.S.-based persons to use its services in violation of the 2022 order.[^23] NBC News reported on November 14, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Coplan was home when "numerous agents" entered, that he turned over his devices, that he had not been arrested or charged, and that it was not clear whether Coplan or Polymarket were targets; a spokesman for the [United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York](/organizations/us-attorneys-office-for-the-southern-district-of-new-york/) declined to comment.[^24] ABC News reported, citing law enforcement sources, that the search was part of a criminal investigation concerning, at least in part, whether Polymarket had violated the 2022 settlement with the CFTC.[^25] That settlement required Polymarket to pay $1.4 million, wind down markets that did not comply, and block U.S. users.[^21] A Polymarket spokesperson called the search "obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election."[^24] The Block reported that the Post paraphrased its source as saying "The government is likely trying to accuse Polymarket of market manipulation and rigging its polls in favor of Trump."[^21]

On July 15, 2025, Bloomberg News reported that the [United States Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) and the CFTC had closed their investigations of Polymarket; the company had received formal declination notices earlier that month, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC. The probes, one civil and one criminal, examined whether the platform accepted wagers from people in the United States despite the company's 2022 assurances, and both ended with no further action.[^26][^27] CNBC reported that the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office conducted the criminal investigation and declined to comment, and that the closure came "nearly nine months" after agents seized Coplan's phone and other devices. Coplan was not criminally charged.[^27]

### Statements on the probe

On the day of the search Coplan wrote on X: "new phone, who dis?"[^3] The Block quoted him on the evening of the search as saying that "Polymarket has provided value to 10's of millions of people this election cycle, while causing harm to nobody," and that "We're deeply proud of that."[^21] On X he also wrote: "It's discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents." He added that Polymarket was "deeply committed to being non-partisan."[^21]

In a November 2025 interview with 60 Minutes, Coplan described the search: "There was a lotta, like, yelling and banging on the door," and, asked whether agents had knocked, he said: "No, like a battering ram."[^5]

### Trump, Trump Jr. and the administration

Polymarket's election markets drew attention in the 2024 campaign. New York magazine reported that Trump's campaign included a Polymarket slide as the first page of its daily briefings, and that Trump told aides, "These are a lot more accurate than the polls, you know."[^3] The same magazine reported that Polymarket's election-night display set off celebrations at [Mar-a-Lago](/places/mar-a-lago/) when it showed Trump winning before the networks did.[^3]

On March 7, 2025, the [Washington Examiner](/organizations/washington-examiner/) reported that Coplan was expected to attend the White House Digital Asset Roundtable at the invitation of [Donald Trump](/people/donald-trump/).[^28] In March he thanked Trump for the invitation, writing that the administration's "commitment to collaboration with American innovators is revitalizing the American dream."[^27]

[Donald Trump Jr.](/people/donald-trump-jr/) joined [Kalshi](/organizations/kalshi/), a rival prediction market, as an adviser in January 2025, according to New York magazine.[^3] On August 26, 2025, Polymarket announced that [1789 Capital](/organizations/1789-capital/), Trump Jr.'s venture firm, had made a strategic investment in the company, and that Trump Jr. had joined Polymarket's advisory board. The terms were not disclosed.[^29] In the November 2025 interview CBS reported that the 1789 Capital fund had invested about $10 million. Asked whether the appointment was meant to protect him, Coplan said: "So it's definitely not to protect myself." He also said of the administration: "This admin is very pro-innovation, and pro-crypto, and pro-Polymarket, which is amazing."[^5] In July 2026 the Daily Beast reported, citing the New York Post, that Coplan had a meltdown after Trump Jr. joined a rival business.[^30]

The 2024 Series B was led by Founders Fund, the venture firm founded by [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/), and Vitalik Buterin took part in it.[^15]

### Political donations

The Federal Election Commission's itemized receipts for the name "Coplan, Shayne" list 23 receipts from Shayne Coplan of New York, with employers shown as Polymarket, Shayne Coplan or Blockratize Inc. (the 2026 receipts add "Mr." to the name).[^31] Entries for other people named Coplan, in Arizona, Colorado and Virginia, appear in a surname search and are not attributed to him here. Line by line, the records show four contributions in his own name:

- June 15, 2023: $5,000 to Never Back Down, a super PAC whose FEC committee record gives a first filing date of February 23, 2023 and a treasurer, Cabell Hobbs.[^32]
- October 21, 2024: $50,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee. The Harris Victory Fund receipt is the one reported on the individual-contribution line (11AI). The other October 21 entries are the committee's allocations of that money: $41,300 to the [Democratic National Committee](/organizations/democratic-national-committee/) (DNC Services Corp.), $3,300 to Harris for President, and nine receipts of $105.88 or $105.89 to state party committees in Alabama, Idaho, Maine (two), Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and the District of Columbia, plus a further $105.88 to the Idaho party dated November 4 and marked a partnership allocation. Each is reported under the text "Harris Victory Fund" or, for the Idaho entry of November 4, "partnership allocation," and several under the FEC joint-fundraising memo code (15J).[^31]
- November 1, 2024: $23,300 to the Torres Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee whose treasurer, Andrew Madras, is also treasurer of Torres for Congress, the committee of Representative Ritchie Torres, and of La Bamba PAC, which Torres sponsors. The contribution is recorded twice: once as an earmarked contribution to the committee and once as a $23,300 receipt through ActBlue, filed as an earmark for the Torres Victory Fund (committee C00754598). The allocations are $3,300 to Torres for Congress, $10,000 to the New York State Democratic Committee, $5,000 to Equality PAC and $5,000 to La Bamba PAC, which add to $23,300.[^31]
- August 3, 2026: three receipts to the Republican National Committee totaling $250,000, with Blockratize Inc. as employer: $44,300 to the committee's main account, $72,800 to its headquarters account and $132,900 to its legal proceedings account.[^31]

The Democratic-side contributions therefore total $73,300 ($50,000 and $23,300). The Washington Examiner reported on March 7, 2025 that he donated roughly $100,000 to Democrats in the 2024 cycle.[^28] The employer search also shows that on September 19, 2024 Polymarket's chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber, made a $50,000 contribution to the Harris Victory Fund with the same allocations to the DNC, Harris for President and state parties, and that on July 17, 2026 its chief legal officer, Neal Kumar, gave $10,000 to the DSCC.[^33]

### Wealth

On October 7, 2025, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, invested $2 billion in cash in Polymarket. Fortune reported that the investment put the company's valuation at $9 billion after the deal, and that the Bloomberg Billionaires Index counted Coplan as a billionaire at 27, making him the youngest current self-made billionaire.[^2] CBS described him as "a billionaire, at least on paper," and reported that Polymarket had not yet made a profit.[^5]

### 2026 inquiries

On May 22, 2026, [James Comer](/people/james-comer/), chairman of the [House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform](/organizations/house-committee-on-oversight-and-government-reform/), signed a four-page letter to Coplan as chief executive of Blockratize, Inc. doing business as Polymarket, with a copy to ranking member [Robert Garcia](/people/robert-garcia/). The letter states that the committee is examining the use of prediction-market platforms to conduct insider trading and the adequacy of company safeguards against offshore access that circumvents U.S. regulation. It cites an April 24, 2026 federal indictment of U.S. Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke (the Justice Department's release of the unsealed indictment is dated April 23, 2026), which alleges that he used classified information about Operation Absolute Resolve, the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, to place wagers producing more than $409,000 in personal financial gain on Polymarket, and a May 13, 2026 New York Times investigation reporting that more than 80 Polymarket users placed bets with suspicious characteristics, including trades hours before unannounced U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. The letter asks for documents from January 1, 2024 to the present, by June 5, 2026, in eight categories: identity verification and know-your-customer procedures (including differences for international account holders and the financial impact of those policies); detection, investigation and reporting of suspicious trading, and the number and disposition of referrals to the Department of Justice, the CFTC and other authorities; contracts tied to U.S. or Israeli military operations in Iran and to Operation Absolute Resolve; collection and use of personal data; compliance with CFTC regulations and the 2022 settlement; deliberations on contracts tied to armed conflict; current or former officers, directors, employees and advisers who hold or have applied for a U.S. security clearance; and the financial impact of anomalous trading on market integrity.[^19]

In September 2026 the [Wall Street Journal](/organizations/the-wall-street-journal/) published an investigation by Katherine Long, Caitlin Ostroff and Neil Mehta, which other outlets reported on September 21. According to those reports, current and former employees told the Journal that compliance staff escalated to Coplan a stolen-debit-card fraud attempt on Polymarket's U.S. platform, worth at least $10 million, that peaked in February, with the payment processor Checkout.com rejecting more than 80 percent of the deposits it handled at the peak against an industry norm of about 1 percent, and that Coplan replied: "Just keep growing and pay a fine if regulators ever find out." Polymarket has not confirmed the comment. A spokesperson said the company's "market integrity framework includes processes to detect, review and respond to suspicious activity."[^34] The same reports state that the Journal also reported that the CFTC is investigating Polymarket and that staff were told to preserve records; that Polymarket's U.S. chief compliance officer, Andrew Clifford, resigned in April after sending executives a report on the fraud; that the U.S. division's chief executive, Justin Hertzberg, was later fired; that a review by Sullivan & Cromwell concluded the company had complied with applicable regulations; and that Polymarket was raising $1 billion at a valuation of about $21 billion, with Donald Trump Jr.'s 1789 Capital investing roughly $300 million.[^34]

[^1]: Fortune, "Who is Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan? The 26-year-old's crypto betting site is taking U.S. politics by storm," Nov. 3, 2024. https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/11/03/polymarket-ceo-shayne-coplan-crypto-betting-site-us-presidential-election-harris-trump-odds/
[^2]: Fortune, article on the Intercontinental Exchange investment and Coplan's billionaire status, Oct. 11, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/10/11/shayne-coplan-polymarket-youngest-self-made-billionaire-nyse-investment-success/
[^3]: Jen Wieczner, "Is Polymarket Legal? How Shayne Coplan's Bet Is Paying Off," New York magazine, Intelligencer, March 11, 2025. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/is-polymarket-legal-politics-betting-shayne-coplan.html
[^4]: Fred Harter, "Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan has built a $9bn empire on crypto bets," The Observer, March 15, 2026. https://observer.co.uk/news/profile/article/polymarket-founder-shayne-coplan-has-built-a-9bn-empire-on-crypto-bets
[^5]: "Meet Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, the college dropout turned billionaire behind the online betting platform," CBS News, 60 Minutes, Nov. 30, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/polymarket-ceo-shayne-coplan-online-betting-platform-60-minutes-transcript/
[^6]: TokenUnion, team page with the biography of Shayne Coplan (chief executive officer), Internet Archive capture of http://tokenunion.io/ dated May 19, 2019. Self-description. https://web.archive.org/web/20190519212047/http://tokenunion.io/
[^7]: TokenUnion, homepage, Internet Archive capture of http://tokenunion.io/ dated May 19, 2019 (21:20:47 GMT); footer "2018 Blockratize Limited." https://web.archive.org/web/20190519212047/http://tokenunion.io/
[^8]: Daniel Soufi, "Shayne Coplan, Generation Z's first major billionaire," El País (English edition), Nov. 1, 2025. https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2025-11-01/shayne-coplan-generation-zs-first-major-billionaire.html
[^9]: Product Hunt, "TokenUnion: Earn crypto by holding crypto," launch page and comment thread dated Nov. 2, 2017 (launch tag tokenbnk; one review dated Jan. 2022). https://www.producthunt.com/posts/tokenunion
[^10]: Curtis Silver, "TokenUnion Is The Decentralized Cryptocurrency Savings Account That Rewards Patience," Forbes (contributor), Nov. 3, 2017 (Internet Archive copy). https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtissilver/2017/11/03/tokenbnk-is-the-decentralized-cryptocurrency-savings-account-that-rewards-patience/
[^11]: Shayne Coplan, "Staking Beyond Consensus: decentralized digital labor markets," The Block, March 2, 2020. https://www.theblock.co/post/56263/staking-beyond-consensus-decentralized-digital-labor-markets
[^12]: Internet Archive captures of https://union.market/ dated July 17, 2019 and Nov. 19, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191119232941/https://union.market/
[^13]: Robin Hanson, "The Policy Analysis Market (and FutureMAP) Archive," George Mason University, https://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson/policyanalysismarket.html ; "Pentagon Abandons Terrorism Betting Plan," Associated Press, July 29, 2003, as published by KSL, https://www.ksl.com/article/103317
[^14]: "Shayne Coplan, Founder, Polymarket," The Block, Nov. 13, 2020 (The Scoop podcast episode page). https://www.theblock.co/post/84582/shayne-coplan-founder-polymarket
[^15]: "Polymarket Raises $70m From Thiel's Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Vitalik Buterin to Scale Global Prediction Market," Business Wire, May 13, 2024. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240513090515/en/Polymarket-Raises-%2470m-From-Thiels-Founders-Fund-General-Catalyst-Vitalik-Buterin-to-Scale-Global-Prediction-Market
[^16]: "Polymarket raises $45 million from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Vitalik Buterin and others," The Block, May 14, 2024. https://www.theblock.co/post/294367/polymarket-raises-45-million-from-peter-thiels-founders-fund-vitalik-buterin-and-others
[^17]: Naga Avan-Nomayo, "Polymarket discloses past funding rounds totaling $205 million before $2 billion ICE investment," The Block, October 8, 2025. https://www.theblock.co/post/373783/polymarket-discloses-past-funding-rounds-totaling-205-million-before-2-billion-ice-investment
[^18]: SEC Form D notices filed by Blockratize Inc. (CIK 0002041378): notice filed Oct. 18, 2024 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137824000001/primary_doc.xml); amended notice filed Feb. 25, 2025 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137825000001/primary_doc.xml); notice filed Aug. 1, 2025 (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137825000003/primary_doc.xml).
[^19]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, letter to Shayne Coplan as chief executive of Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket, May 22, 2026. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Polymarket-Prediction-Markets-Letter.pdf
[^20]: Dan Bernstein, "What Is Polymarket Doing in Panama?," Sportico, February 19, 2026. https://www.sportico.com/business/sports-betting/2026/polymarket-panama-adventure-one-prediction-market-1234885035/
[^21]: "FBI seizes Polymarket CEO's phone and electronics: report," The Block, Nov. 13, 2024 (updated Nov. 13, 2024). https://www.theblock.co/post/326404/fbi-seizes-polymarket-ceos-phone-and-electronics-report
[^22]: "FBI reportedly raids Polymarket CEO's home after betting platform predicts Trump win: 'Political retribution'," Fox Business, Nov. 13, 2024. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/fbi-reportedly-raids-polymarket-ceos-home-after-betting-platform-predicts-trump-win-political-retribution
[^23]: Darryl Coote, "Reports: FBI raids home, seizes phone of Polymarket's CEO," UPI, Nov. 14, 2024. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/11/14/Polymarket-FBI-raid/9741731564938/
[^24]: Sophia Pargas, Chloe Atkins and Tom Winter, "FBI raids Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan's apartment, seizes phone: source," NBC News, Nov. 14, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/fbi-raids-polymarket-ceo-shayne-coplans-apartment-seizes-phone-source-rcna180180
[^25]: Aaron Katersky, "FBI raids Polymarket founder's home in criminal probe of election betting platform," ABC News, Nov. 14, 2024. https://abcnews.com/US/fbi-raids-polymarket-founders-home-criminal-probe-election/story?id=115861557
[^26]: "US Justice Department and CFTC close probes into Polymarket: Bloomberg," The Block, July 15, 2025. https://www.theblock.co/post/362703/us-justice-department-and-cftc-close-probes-into-polymarket-bloomberg
[^27]: "Polymarket investigations ended by DOJ, CFTC without charges," CNBC, July 15, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/15/polymarket-investigations-doj-cftc-betting-market.html
[^28]: Washington Examiner, "'Non-partisan' crypto betting company attending White House event is run by Democratic donors," March 7, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3340736/polymarket-white-house-event-democratic-donors/
[^29]: "Donald Trump Jr. joins Polymarket advisory board after his VC firm makes strategic investment," Yahoo Finance, Aug. 26, 2025. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-jr-joins-polymarket-175527312.html
[^30]: The Daily Beast, article on Polymarket's dispute with Donald Trump Jr. and Kalshi, July 31, 2026, citing the New York Post. https://www.thedailybeast.com/polymarket-billionaires-screaming-don-jr-meltdown-revealed/
[^31]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, contributor-name search "COPLAN, SHAYNE" (openFEC API, api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/, retrieved Oct. 13, 2026). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=COPLAN%2C%20SHAYNE . Committee records: Torres Victory Fund (C00754598), Torres for Congress (C00699744, candidate H0NY15160, Ritchie John Torres) and La Bamba PAC (C00753947, sponsor candidate Ritchie John Torres), each with treasurer Andrew Madras. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00754598/
[^32]: FEC committee record, C00834077, Never Back Down Inc. (super PAC; treasurer Cabell Hobbs; first file date 2023-02-23). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00834077/
[^33]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts by contributor employer "POLYMARKET" and "BLOCKRATIZE INC." (openFEC API, retrieved Oct. 13, 2026), including Modabber, Matthew (Sept. 19, 2024) and Kumar, Neal (July 17, 2026). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_employer=POLYMARKET
[^34]: Kurt Robson, "Keep Growing and Pay a Fine: Polymarket CEO Allegedly Ignored Warnings as Fraud Attempts Hit $10M," CCN via Yahoo Finance, Sept. 21, 2026, reporting the Wall Street Journal investigation (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/keep-growing-pay-fine-polymarket-104716697.html); Cris Tolomia, "Polymarket's CEO told staff to keep growing as a $10M fraud scheme hit its U.S. platform," Quartz, updated Sept. 21, 2026 (https://qz.com/polymarket-ceo-fraud-cftc-investigation-growth-092126); Mateusz Mazur, "Polymarket Waved Off Stolen-Card Fraud Warnings, WSJ Reports," iGaming Express, Sept. 21, 2026, naming the Journal's authors (https://igamingexpress.com/polymarket-stolen-card-fraud-coplan-wsj/).


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